Some mandatory wind turbine servicing operations are required to be carried out at periodic intervals outside the wind turbine. Servicing operations comprise operations intended to ensure operational safety such as, for example, monitoring, inspection, repair and maintenance operations. Maintenance operations may comprise, for example, regularly retightening the bolts in the rotor for joining the pitch bearing to the hub in wind turbines. Inspection operations may comprise, for example, periodically inspecting pitch lubrication equipment outside wind turbines. All of such operations involve operators working in dangerous and critical areas at great heights outside the wind turbines.
A safety line is usually used to protect the operator(s) working outside wind turbines in addition to the use of other safety devices such as harnesses. This is regulated under guidelines in the wind sector such as the Environmental Health and safety (EHS) guidelines for hazard prevention in wind turbines.
Other solutions have been proposed consisting in providing anchoring ladders in the so-called naked nacelle designs for the passage of workers thereon. For example, EP2484893 discloses the use of a service platform attached to a wind turbine hub. The service platform comprises a flange extending outwards from the blade root perpendicular to the longitudinal blade axis, acting as a walkway including guardrails extending along the circumference of the platform.
The provision of ladders, platforms and the like however do not provide good accessibility to operators and involve cumbersome structures which are usually complex to install and remove.
Still further solutions have been provided in the art to improve operator safety. For example, it has been proposed to cover the wind turbines with a glass fibre housing. The disadvantage in this case is that the use of glass fibre material in large wind turbines is costly and negatively affects the aesthetic appearance of the wind turbine.